Harmonica



(No Model.)

W. B. FAIRFIELD.

HARMONICA.

No. 588,107. Patented Aug. 10,1897.

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IVALTER B. FAIRFIELD, OF DOUGLASS, MASSACHUSETTS.

HARMONICA.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 588,107', dated August10, 1897. Application led July ll, 1896. Renewed March 24, 1897. SerialNo. 629,092. (No model.)

To all whom, t may concern..-

Beit known that I, WALTER B. FAIRFIELD, a citizen of the United States,residing at East Douglass, in the county of Worcesteig State ofMassachusetts, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements inHarmonicas; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear,and eXact description of the invention, such as will enableothers'skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use thesame.

My invention relates to improvements in Inusical instruments, andparticularly to that class of instruments known as mouth-har monicas.

The invention will first be described in connection with theaccompanying drawings and then particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the drawings, Figure l is a front view of aharmonica embodying myinvention. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section of the same. Figs. 3 and 4are detail views ot the single-reed plate and double-reed plate,respectively. Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the slide or cut oi deviceremoved from the harmonica. Fig. 6 is a cross-section of a modifiedform.

Referring to the drawings, A is the body of a harmonica, usually ofwood, provided with a double set of air-holes separated by alongitudinal partition a into two series a and a2, the former of which,for the sake of perspicuity in the specification, I will designate asthe first series77 and the latter as the second series of blow-holes. Toeach side of the body A is attached a reed-plate B in the vusual manner,each reed-plate having reed-openings l), over each of which is secured atongue or reed h' in a well-known Ina-nner. These reeds are arranged soas to come opposite the air-holes a' a2 in the body.

In the OrdinarT harmonica, so `far as I am aware, the reeds oppositeeach air-hole may be arranged in two ways.

First, where there is only one series oll airholes the two reeds foreach air-hole may be arranged so that one is operated by suctionthat is,by drawing in the breath-while the other one is actuated by blowing.These two reeds may be of the same tone or there may be a musicalinterval between the tones produced by them.

Second, where there are two series ot airholes, as in my construction,the reeds may be in double sets foreach air-hole, one set to be operatedby blowing and the other set by suction, the reeds of one series ofair-holes being tuned to the same tones as the reeds of the otherseries, but the tones of the two reeds of each set varying by a musicalinterval.

In such constructions to produce a chord required considerable practiceand even then was imperfectly attained, since it depended upon theplayer blowing into or sucking through more than one air-hole at a time.

In my construction I supply a simple and efficient means for producingthe chords with each note in t-he melody in the nature of anaccompaniment to such melody. To do this, I employ a double series ofair-holes, as previously described, and arrange the reeds in such amanner that the air passing through the air-holes of one series--forexample, the first series a'-will produce each a single tone, thesuccessive tones being arranged at such Inusical intervals from eachother as to produce the desired musical scale, either diatcnic orchromatic, while the reeds ot' the other series-forexample, the secondseries a2-are so arranged as to produce two tones at each blowhole,these two tones each varying from the tone produced by the correspondingair-holes of the first series by a musical interval,where by when theair passes through a pair of airholes, one in the iiirst series and itscomple- Inent in the second series, a chord will be produced by thesethree tones sounding tcgether. The reeds producing these three tonesInay be arranged to sound by suction or by blowing, but must be adaptedto sound simultaneously, and, if desired, the notes of all the air-holesmay be sounded by blowing or all by suction, or the notes of some of theair-holes may be produced by suction and the others by blowing.

'.lhe simplest means for producing the results above set out comprisesthree reeds to each pair of air-holes, as shown in Fig. 2, one reedbeing in the air-hole of the first series and two reeds in thecorresponding air-hole of the second series, cach of said three reedsvarying from the other two by such a musical interval as to cause thethree reeds when IOO sounded together' to produce a chord of threenotes. I have marked these three reeds in Fig. 2 as C E G', to indicate,as an example, the tone which may be produced by each .reed to give achord; but instead of having a singie set of three reeds to each pair ofair-holes to be all operated by suction or by blast I may use a doubleset of three such reeds for each pair of air-holes, one set of reeds tooperate by suction and the other set by blast. As it is necessary,however, to provide means whereby the melody-note may be sounded withoutat the same time sounding the corresponding two notes which go toproduce the chord I also provide means for preventing the sounding ofsaid two notes, and this forms an importantfeature of my invention. Thismeans may be, iirst, an arrangement of reeds in such a manner that themelody-note will be produced by both suction and blast, but reeds of thesame tone being used for this purpose, while the corresponding two toneswhich go to form the chord are produced only by suction or only byblast, but not by both. In this way by one manner of producing themelody-notes the chord-notes will be sounded with them, while in theother manner of producing the melody-notes the chord-notes will notsound.

A second means for permitting the sounding of the melody-notesindependently of the chord-notes consists of a stop device which shutsoff theairfrom said chord-notes. This stop device may be constructed ina simple manner, as follows: The body A of the harmonica is providedwith a longitudinal slot as, in which is mounted a slide or cut-offplate C, preferably of thin sheet metal. This slide C is arranged tomove in and out in the slot d3, and when fully in has its inner edge inclose contact with the partition (t of the body A, whereby the air-holesof that series which serve to produce the chord-notes are closed, andconsequently the said chord-notes cannot be sounded. `When the slide Cis drawn out, the said air-holes are opened and the air admitted to thereeds of such air-holes, In order to permit the ready operation of thisslide C, each end is connected to a rod c, the said rods passing throughthe ends of the body A and being provided with push-buttons or heads cat the side opposite the slide. Between the heads c/ and the body A areplaced springs c2, preferably surrounding the said rods and tending tohold the heads awayfrom the body A, whereby the slide C is kept closed.The melody-reeds and harmony-reeds may be arranged on the same plate,one above the other, and in such an arrangement the slide is locatedbetween them, as shown in Fig. (i.

IVhen playing a harmonica thus constructed, the player mayproduce themelody on the first series of air-holes, and, when desired, may producethe chords for the melody by pressing down on the push-buttons or headsc', so as to move the slide C outward and open the air-holes ol' thesecond series. Byremoving the pressure from the push-buttons the springsc? will draw the slide C inward and shut off the second series ofair-holes, thus stopping the chord-notes.

I am aware that shutters or slides in connection with musicalinstruments, and particularly mouth-harmonicas,are old, but these are tobe distinguished from myinvention by the fact that they are used in sucha construction that in no way do they affect the tone of theinstrument,though they may stop the sound altogether or mayalter thevolume of the sound.

On the outside of the reed-plates I3 are placed the usual shells D, oneof which projects sufiiciently from the reed-plates B to permit theslide C to be moved inward and outward beneath one ot the said shells,while the opposite oneprojects a similar amount to be symmetrical withits corresponding opposite shell.

IIaving thus fully described my invention, what I claim, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is-

l. In a harmonica, the combination, with a body having two series ofair-holes, of 'a series of single reeds arranged opposite one series ofair-holes, said single reeds being tuned to produce the notes oi' ascale, and a series ol double reeds opposite the other series ofairholes, each pair of said double reeds being tuned to produce notesforming a chord with the single note produced by the correspondingopposite single reed, substantially as described.

2. In a harmonica, the combination, with a body having` two series ofair-holes, of a series of single reeds arranged opposite one series ofair-holes, said single reeds being tuned to produce the notes of ascale, a series oi' double reeds opposite the other series of air-holes,each pair of said double reeds being tuned to produce notes forming achord with the single note produced by the corresponding opposite singlereed, and means for stopping the playing of the double reeds whendesired, substantially as described.

23. In a harmonica, the combination, with a series of melody-reeds, of aseries of chordreeds, and a slide arranged to cut ott the air from thechord-reeds, when desired, substantially as described.

4t. In a harmonica, the combination, with a body having two series oilair-holes, and a longitudinal slot, of a series of melody-reeds oppositeone series of air-holes, a series of chordreeds opposite the otherseries of air-holes, and a slide movable in the longitudinal slot andarranged to close that series of air-holes next to the chord-reeds,substantially as described. I

5. In a harmonica, the combination, with a body havin g two series ofair-holes, and a longitudinal slot, of a series of melody-reeds oppositeone series of air-holes, a series of chord- IOO IIO

reeds opposite the other series of air-holes, a ln testimony whereof laffix my signature slide movable in the longitudinal slot and arinpresence of two Witnesses. ranged to close that series of air-holes nexty q 1 1 to the chord-reeds, means for forcing the YALLER L FAIRPHLLD' 5slide ont to open the said air-holes, and a Witnesses:

spring for Closing the slide, substantially as REBECCA D. FAIRFIELD,described. Mrs. F. J. LIBBY.

